As part of MusicFest Vancouver, renowned vocalist, Dee Daniels and Seattle-based Groove for Thought delivered an evening of jazz-tinged gospel, blues and original music that fell flat.

While Daniels is a tremendously accomplished vocalist who has performed all over the world, received numerous accolades (including a plaque on Vancouver’s Granville Street Walk of Fame and Capilano University’s President’s Service Award) her five-song set was underwhelming.

Two obtuse choices in the short set were an interpretation of the 1996 chart-topper, “I Believe I Can Fly”, originally performed by alleged pedophile R. Kelly, and “Somewhere” from the Broadway musical “West Side Story”.  The vocals on the former made a shambles of the original but allowed Greg Williamson to shine on drums and Tony Foster to shine on piano.The latter replaced Foster with Daniels on the keys with vocals overtaken by unnecessary riffs and runs.

Both acts shone on two Ray Charles songs, Daniels and her trio on a half-time “The Right Time”, and Groove for Thought on a double-time “Hallelujah I Love Her So”.

Groove for Thought is a squeaky clean sextet backed by base, drums and keyboards that strikes a balance between old Manhattan Transfer pop-jazz styling and the contemporary jazz- and R&B-tinged gospel of Take 6 – performing the Take 6 tune, “Something Within Me” near the end of their nine-song set.

Although Groove for Thought was formed a decade ago, their stage presence and arrangements were a bit sloppy – but rich with potential. Standouts for Groove for Thought’s set were a rousing rendition of Earth Wind & Fire’s “Shining Star”, and a bubble-gum, saccharine original song “Got a lot of Lemons” with the predictable chorus “make lemonade”. Saturday’s show at the Vogue Theatre was like a lukewarm glass of marginally refreshing sweet as molasses lemonade.KAF

This concert turned out to be more of a Dee Daniels show than for Groove for Thought. In fact, I think the almost-standing-room audience came for Daniels and not for the Groove.

Daniels is indeed an accomplished performer. She has good rapport with the audience. She got the audience to jazz with her, but the audience was more interested in seeing her perform. She curled those high notes like no one could. She took the best of those classic jazz singers--Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, etc. and created her own style.

My question, though, is why she came as a guest and not come with her own show? At any rate, in this concert, she was the star. She started off the show and ended it with two Gospel songs with the Groove singing as backup singers.EF

© 2009 Ed Farolan & Kim Alison Fraser